12 Ways to Help Make MLK’s Dream a Reality
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States, a federal holiday. We remember Dr. King as a civil rights leader, a rousing speaker,and an advocate of non-violent resistance. Best remembered of all his works, though, is his “I have a dream” speech. King dreamed that one day, race would be irrelevant to an individual’s opportunities in life.
That hasn’t happened, not in the United States, and not anywhere else. Although the blatant racism of the past — the lynchings, the Klan rallies,the pogroms, the concentration camps — are no longer acceptable in most societies (though they keep rearing up with troubling regularity — consider Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and Guantanamo Bay), race and racism are still factors in most people’s lives, and still create barriers to many people’s ability to succeed.
This affects us all. When a child is denied access to a top-notch education because she belongs to a despised minority, or because it’s assumed that his group just isn’t smart enough, or even that it’s pointless to waste resources on children who will not be able to make use of it because of racism, we as a society lose out on the particular talents and strengths that child might have had to offer if given a chance to develop them. When leadership is associated with the qualities of one group, we as a society limit the possibilities for innovation and new direction. (Take a look at the US Senate if you want to see how Americans think of leadership. Ask yourself what innovation you expect of these 88 white men, 11 white women, and 1 black man.)
Race and racism affect our personal lives, as well, even if we’re not in the minority. Take a look around you next time you go to a place where people socialize. Chances are you’ll see little clumps of similarly-colored people — whites with whites, blacks with blacks, Asians with Asians, and so on. Even today, it’s rare for a person to have more than one or two people of differing race (if any) in their circle of friends.
When I ask my students why this is, they tend to say something like, “It’s natural for people to want to be with people who are like them.” They’re probably right — but why do we think people of our race are the most like us, instead of, say, people who share our values, or people who share our profession, or people who share our taste in books? And why are certain kinds of music, movies, literature, clothes, and so on still associated with people of specific races?
Was this Dr. King’s dream?
I say, we still have a long way to go to make the dream a reality. While some change will have to be legislated, there are lots of things each of us as individuals can do to minimize the amount and effect of racism in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
- Stop lying to yourself: People like to say they’re “colorblind” when it comes to race. This is not only dishonest, but it wouldn’t solve anything even if it were true. There are real differences between people; denying those differences means dismissing a person’s culture, heritage, and experience — the very things that make them a unique person instead of a representative of their race. Pretending to deny it is even worse, because not only are you refusing to see someone as a whole person, but you’re also refusing to claim responsibility for addressing the real injustices that still cause people harm.
- Engage people directly: Approach each person as an individual, not as an instance of their race. Even well-intentioned people seem to find it easier to read books, watch movies, and attend classes about minority people than to actually get to know them in person. It makes us vulnerable to interact with someone in a real, genuine way and to really get to know them; instead, we retreat into stereotypes that act as a shield between us.
- Don’t wait for others to educate you: Take responsibility for understanding the world around you and the forces that shape less privileged peoples’ lives — and your own role in it. If you’re a member of a privileged group, few people are going to tell you that your words or actions are hurtful to them; take the initiative and think about the possible effect of your actions before you carry them out.
- Forget about categories: Knowing what race, ethnicity, gender, age, class, or any other category a person fits into tells you nothing about that person’s life — and may lead you badly astray. Recognize that “race” is a part of someone’s identity, but not the whole of it.
- Learn and respect history: Americans, especially, like to “let go” of the past and pretend that historical forces can be easily overcome. But the events of 30, 75, even 200 years ago still shape people’s lives today. Consider: the most common source of wealth in the United States is home ownership. Practices such as restrictive covenants (which forbid the sale of homes to blacks, and sometimes to Jews and other minorities), mortgage redlining (where mortgages are denied to people who live in neighborhoods regarded as risky, regardless of the borrower’s ability to repay the loan), and steering (the practice of showing minority house buyers homes only in minority neighborhoods) have severely limited home ownership — and thus wealth — among minorities. These practices were still legal in my lifetime (and some, like steering, are still widely practiced even though illegal). As a consequence, home ownership is still greatly imbalanced among the various ethnicities that make up American society. Denying that this history has an effect might feel more comfortable, but that doesn’t make it true, and it certainly doesn’t help those whose lives have been affected by it.
- Don’t be a bystander: Stand up for minorities when you hear others making disparaging remarks, when you see people discriminating against them, or when you see someone targeted for their color. It can be scary to risk offending people by standing up against them, but it’s the only way real change is going to come about — even if that change is only that people are less willing to be openly racist when you’re around. (If you still aren’t convinced that racism is alive and well, ask why people feel so uncomfortable confronting racist behavior when they come across it.)
- Re-examine what you “know”: It turns out our minds are full of racist stereotypes, even among the most saintly people. We act every day on things we “know” are true, without realizing that those “facts” are grounded only in stereotypes, not reality. Consider:
- The lowest violent crime rates in the US are found in Hispanic neighborhoods.
- White teens are more likely to use and sell drugs than any other teenagers — even drugs like crack that we associate with minorities.
- Almost all school shootings have been carried out by white students.
None of these facts conforms to our expectations, which are shaped more by the stereotypes we’ve internalized and the sensationalist media than by actual experience.
- Think community: Kant’s Categorical Imperative states: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”. What he meant in a nutshell was that you should act the way you wish everyone would act. Don’t just ask yourself if your behavior is in your own best interest, but if it also makes your community better (which, if you think about it, is also in your best interest).
- Question racist jokes: Confront people with the assumptions behind their racist jokes. One strategy is to simply ask them to explain why it’s funny: “I don’t understand, are you saying black people are stupid?” or “Is that funny because Jews are supposed to be stingy?” We tend to think that jokes don’t mean much, but ask yourself how comfortable you’d feel in, say, a workplace where, every day or so, you heard someone make a joke at your group’s expense.
And by the way: just because it’s funny when Chris Rock (or Carlos Mencia, or some other comedian) says it, doesn’t mean it’s harmless when you say it. For one thing, Chris Rock doesn’t represent all black people any more than anyone else does; for another, Chris Rock is a professional satirist of people’s racist assumptions. Comedians force us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves, and one uncomfortable truth is that racial divides are still quite wide in our society. That kind of skill and talent isn’t as common as your racist office joker thinks it is.
- Watch your language: For some reason people feel put upon when someone suggests that phrases like “Indian giver” might be offensive and hurtful. Standing up for your right to be offensive and hurtful isn’t really very heroic; why not just try to avoid saying things that offend. Humans are born with an amazing capacity for creative language use — I’m sure you can figure out a way to say what you mean without perpetuating stereotypes.
- Forget local news: Local news coverage thrives on the use of simple-minded racial stereotypes and sensationalist violence. We deserve better — but we’re not going to get it so long as we keep watching.
- Avoid positive stereotypes, too: Stereotypes like “Asians are good at science”, “black people are great athletes”, and “Jews are super smart” might not seem harmful, but they do the same thing negative stereotypes do: they reduce living, breathing individuals to images imposed by others, preventing us from seeing and interacting with them as individuals. Most of them have roots in racism, too: black athleticism is tied to the idea that black people were strong, violent brutes; Jewish cleverness was seen as destructive and dangerous to civilized communities. The idea that Asians are good at math and science is not rooted in racism, but is tied to a specific wave of highly educated, affluent immigrants that came to the US in the ’60s and ’70s — and prevents later waves of immigrants such as Southeast Asian refugees, some of whom make up the poorest groups in the US population, from being seen for who they really are.
The problem of racism is a big one, but it’s not an impossible one. Here are 12 things you can do — not always easy things, but ultimately doable things — to start making a difference in your the world around you. In the end, they boil down to “respect others” and “know thyself”, good advice for most situations. It doesn’t take a huge number of people to start making a difference — after all, Martin Luther King made a difference and he was just one person. Just like you are.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
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Comments
Pearl Alexander says on January 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
This post is fantastic. I only just stumbled on this site a few days ago and I’m so happy that I did.
I currently live in Japan where I am regularly looked at funny, assumed about, or downright insulted by members of its very xenophobic community.
I hear these sorts of questions all the time: Can you eat Japanese food? Why can you speak Japanese? Can you write Japanese? I was even asked that last question one time by a waitress after placing my order with her.
When you think of a place as your home, it gets really old to always be the odd one out for no, to me, obvious reason. But that reason is obvious to everyone else; it’s because I’m White.
I’m an elementary and middle school teacher and I begin to see the assumptions about my race creep in about age 7, but not before that. It’s obvious to me where a lot of racism originates when I see this.
In a melting pot like America, it’s also obvious to me that this is the cause of an enormous amount of problems in the country, more than people are willing to admit or talk about. Everyone just tries to ignore it and “treat everyone equally.” But this isn’t what should be happening. We should be free to ask questions and wonder about the differences in each race and culture. It shouldn’t be swept aside by fear of the unknown.
I wish it were possible to take children of different races and have them talk face to face about what they are curious about. To ask another person about their heritage without ignoring the differences or making assumptions.
I think if this sort of thing happened at a younger age, it would be more difficult for words and stories that other people tell them to have an effect on their perception. They can have a face and a memory tied to that ambiguous concept of race.
Thanks again for so many great posts.
audrey says on January 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thank you for your efforts to give people ways to help eliminate prejudice in themselves, however I must respectfully disagree with you on some points.
It is my view that promoting politically correct speech is a really bad idea. Certainly there are borders to everything and some speech is malicious and ill intended, however political correctness catches as many dolphins as it does tuna in it’s all encompassing net. It is the stuff of alienation and power playing, not community building.
The impact of self or other imposed political correctness is not merely to eradicate malice in speech, but to eradicate ease and trust between people. There is no community where there are guardians of the language. Real interaction (and therefore potential for communion) is replaced with hyperconscious efforts to negotiate safe harbor.
Political correctness does not produce sensitivity, unless by sensitivity we mean hyper awareness and piety… but not awareness of one’s own prejudices so much as fear of labels and not internal goodness so much as self satisfaction. This may seem like a good enough result to those who put their trust in surfaces, but I put my trust in honest interplay (which is more messy but more productive).
For that reason, I think that a better suggestion is this: Do not resign yourself to the unsightly demilitarized zones of polite political correctness. Rather, endeavor to be forthright and truthful instead of self protective. Make a point of surrounding yourself with people who say what they think and who expect and accept the same from you. Laugh at the dicey and offensive if it’s funny, but rely on and listen to your inner voice to determine when and where a line is crossed. Avoid the pious and rigorously politically correct, not just because they are the least interesting of people but because these are often the most insincere. Do not be confused by opportunists making use of surfaces to serve their ambitions.
Value honesty, humor, curiosity and openness in others. Never ask them to say the right thing, although be free and brave enough to challenge ideas that you disagree with. That being said, do not offend easily. Accept that sometimes you will be offended. When necessary be unwilling to be silent. With real people create real bridges.
karen says on January 21st, 2008 at 10:30 am
Wonderful, Dustin. Fits in with some things I have always believed, but did not know how to achieve.
Thank you.
Pamela Skillings says on January 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
This is a fantastic and eloquent post for MLK Day. I especially appreciate your points about engaging people directly and questioning what you “know” about them based on their race.
James says on January 21st, 2008 at 11:29 am
Well, that was an interesting, and thought provoking post. Just wondering, what does racism and Guantanamo Bay have in common? While some people in the military might be racist, I don’t see any real connection?
rawdawgbuffalo says on January 21st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
nice dedication…chk out my post about the King THANK WE FREE
Ioannus de Verani says on January 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
First, that is a very good, helpful and thorough post. But, I must agree somewhat with Audrey.
As for James’s question regarding the connexion between Guantanamo Bay and racism, I think that the author of the post was attempting the comparison of Guantanamo Bay to a concentration camp. If this is true, I must say, that is a very ludicrous statement. The conditions at GB are nothing like those of a real concentration camp.
This is just like when people try to get us to be “angry” about the “huge” number of Americans that have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Of course, we all weep inside for the loss that the families have had to bear, and we mourn the fallen troops, and we honour their sacrifice; but, we must remember that the “War on Terror” has been the most painless war we have ever fought. The number of troops that we have lost total in the few years of the war are the number of people that could die on one day of World War II. We must stay in perspective.
As for Guantanamo Bay, we tend to overreact to things, and start comparing them to things that have no comparison. We must be careful when we bring up comparisons of the present to the cruelties of the Germans, &c. of the past.
Dustin Wax says on January 21st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Guantanamo — Maybe I should have said “Abu Ghraib”, the name escaped me as I was writing. I meant to reference the use of torture and other dehumanizing tactics, which inevitably end up drawing on (and creating, in many cases) racist stereotypes. And it is also clear that a significant number of people have ended up in US military prisons without charges or any immediate prospect of a trial because they are easy to see as less than human.
On political correctness: audrey’s argument makes a lot of sense, but it assumes that people are in a situation in which all the players are equally powerful (or equally disempowered). We know that language in many cases affects the way people think about other people — picture a doctor. Was he white? (Note how sure I am that he was a “he”.) Now imagine how many times you hear “when will the doctor be in?” if you’re a black female doctor working in, say, Chicago. Or better yet, ask a black female doctor — there’s lots of them around. Our language leads us to assume things about people — that goes well beyond standard political correctness. When everyone’s on the same level, words lose a lot of their ability to hurt — and they can be easily laughed at. Hang out among any minority group and that becomes immediately clear. WHen people *aren’t* on the same level, power-wise, I think it is incumbent on those with more power to watch their words and to listen openly and honestly when others explain how their words offend. Again: it’s easy to not be easily offended when you’re on top; it’s a lot harder when you face a barrage of misguided assumptions about you, especially when they’re hard-wired into the language.
Sangrail says on January 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Hey, awesome article!
And as an aside, in my experience, ‘political correctness’ is a weasel term propped up as a strawman by those frustrated by the lack of acceptance for their bigoted, racist and sexist remarks.
It’s not that stopped saying bigoted, racist and sexist remarks, they were just complaining basically that other people seemed to think they were a bit *dumb* for saying it, and wasn’t that a terrible, terrible thing to happen to them?
Poor widdums.
o_O
Ahmed Kamal says on January 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
Thank you for the thought provoking article. In fact your suggestions are very helpful. I generally like many of lifehack articles.
When racism is mentioned I can’t stop myself thinking, how could a one of a kind state like Israel still exist in this world? Oh, thanks to Uncle Sam!
Ah Sen says on January 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
It seems that human beings are affected by the way they were brought up. We tend to believe that specific race has specific uniqueness and weakness. This habit tends to make us to judge people from the way they look, skin colour, the clothes they wear, the status and so on. The judgement will overshadow their talent of ability to be successful for accomplishing or achieving.
George says on January 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Very well written and soul arousing post. This is one all members of mankind should be able to extract something good and insightful from.
Joseph Bernard says on January 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
As usual your blog is full of inspirational ideas and Dr. King to me is one of the most inspirational people in my lifetime.
I was a teenager when Dr King gave his “I Have A Dream” speech and I can still hear his words resonating in my heart and soul.
Today I want to share a perspective that I trust Dr King would shake his head in agreement: We are one.
By this simple statement I want to take down the barriers of separation by color, politics, points of view, religion, sexual orientation, beliefs, geographic, and whatever else humans use to drawn lines. All those ways of judging and separating are all about ego. If you felt ok in your own skin, had an open heart, and didn’t have a need to control others you could drop all the barriers and see the truth of our unity and connection.
Joseph
Joseph Bernard, Ph.D.
http://www.explorelifeblog.com
http://www.peace-together.com
audrey says on January 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Dear Dustin (and others), thank you for responding to my comment. It is always nice to hear what people have to say about what I have to say.
I will respectfully continue to disagree with you, however, about whether coding the language is in the interests individuals or society. I do not believe so. It is institutionalized bad faith and somewhat fascist(in its literal definition). It does not meet my personal litmus test for public policy: In the hands of the opposition… say a fundamentalist right wing culture… it would be toxic, therefore, in my view, it is toxic now. If it is a danger to free speech and independent thought in an enemy’s hands, it is a danger to free speech and independent thought. Period.
There are, of course, excellent examples of how generalizations impact black Americans negatively. A better example would be redlining or refusing to allow a middle class black family to move into your neighborhood because your perception is that they will bring drugs and thugs with them. When perceptions are influenced by damaging stereotypes or negative experiences and that impacts on your ability to live next to, trust, work with, be serviced by someone because they share the same race, gender etc with the stereotype you know or the people you’ve come in contact with…that’s an issue. I think those examples are better resolved through ligation than loading the language.
Your example doesn’t move me, at all and of course is immune to ligation, thankfully. It’s the sort of spoiled American suffering that gets us such a bad rep around the world. Pretty much the opposite of REAL suffering, isn’t it? You could reframe the consequences of the generalization for greater impact: If I realize you are the doctor and I leave your office because you are female or black.. and you can’t get a client base because people think you couldn’t possibly have graduated med school on merit… or white male doctors are more skilled… THAT’s an issue. But because merely I assumed that you were the nurse instead of the successful, well paid, tudor house in the tony suburbs, summer home at the shore, lexus owning doctor you really are? Please… suck it up and stop being such a whiner. Someone’s generalized experience didn’t prepare them for you? Forgive them and move on.
Change comes with new experiences not through proscribed and prescribed language. As an example… Until this week my envisioned nurse was NEVER a white male…. However, a white male nurse took care of my husband in the hospital recently. I was mildly curious about him since he wasn’t who I was accustomed to. Moving on from there, I was far more interested in whether he was bringing my husband water and taking care of his needs. I think that’s pretty much all there is to say about that.
And my doctors aren’t white males in my head, because well… they aren’t white males in my life. In any case, the stereotype of a white male doctor is a stereotype not borne out by my experience. My husband’s heart surgeon is an Asian male. His anesthesiologist is Indian and male. His internist/ endocrinologist is Iranian (I guess he’s white male… although he refers to himself as Persian). My plastic surgeon (following a dog bite, not nip and tuck) is an Asian male. My gynecologist is an Asian female; my radiologists (both of them) are white females. My internist is an Asian female.
I guess the best way to experience reality is as it happens with as few assumptions as you can muster.. including popular politically correct ones. Or barring that.. the willingness to revise with new experiences.
Nuruddeen says on January 24th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Excellent article. I think it demonstrates your bravery. Keep it up!